Over 90 polytechnic institutes across the state, which includes about 10 in Mumbai, are likely to lose their affiliation if they fail to get their act together. Citing poor academic performance in the 2013-14 academic year, the Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education (MSBTE) has now issued showcause notices to 92 technical institutes in the state.

To keep a check on the performance of the institutes, which offer engineering/technology, pharmacy, HMCT and architecture courses among others, the state had started an academic monitoring process in 2012.

“There are about 10 institutes from the Mumbai region that have received a poor remark. The major chunk of institutes with poor academic performance, however, is from the Nagpur region, followed by Aurangabad,” said MSBTE director Pramod Naik.

The institutes have been instructed to submit compliance reports and the state will conduct hearings for the institutes from Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad regions on May 20 and 21. The institutes will be given a month to comply with the prescribed norms. “If they still fail to remove the deficiencies and are not able to comply with the regulations, we will derecognise them,” said V M Mohitkar, MSBTE secretary.
There are 558 institutes, which were part of the first external academic monitoring process for 2013-14, and it includes 45 from the city.

Each year, institutes are required to fill in details of academic and overall development of students on a regular basis on the online academic monitoring portal. As part of the monitoring, inspections are conducted, and it covers several key performance indicators, including faculty development, curriculum implementation, continuous assessment, result analysis, use of learning resources, student attendance, library facilities, participation in technical competitions and laboratory standards. The inspection reports of each institute are also uploaded on the board’s website.